Isser Harel

Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content. Learn more.

This article was originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year, an annual print publication that
provides an overview of the year’s most-notable people and events.
Unlike most articles on Britannica.com, Book of the Year articles are not reviewed and revised after their initial publication.
Rather, they are presented on the site as archival content, intended for historical reference only.

Isser Harel, (Isser Halperin), Israeli spymaster (born 1912, Vitebsk, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus]—died Feb. 18, 2003, Petah Tiqwa, Israel), directed the abduction from Argentina of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official responsible for carrying out the “final solution,” the extermination of Jews in Europe. In Palestine in 1942 Harel joined the clandestine Jewish organization Haganah, and two years later he became a member of Haganah’s intelligence department. When Israel became independent in 1948, Harel became the first head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency. In 1952 he also became head of Mossad, the foreign intelligence agency. In an operation in 1960, he found and identified Eichmann where he was living in hiding in Buenos Aires, Arg., and organized his capture and transport to Israel, where Eichmann was executed in 1962. Another campaign, against West German scientists who were helping Egypt develop weapons delivery systems at a time when the Israeli government was developing closer ties to West Germany, caused Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to require his resignation in 1963. Harel’s account of the Eichmann capture, The House on Garibaldi Street (1975), made him famous.